According to data from the World Economic Forum, in 2025 robots will perform 52% of human tasks (today, only 29% of these tasks are automated).

But just as technology extinguishes some jobs, it also has the power to create new ones. It’s believed that the robotics revolution will provide 58 million new jobs over the next 5 years.

As already foreseen, Procurement is on the list of areas that will undergo great impacts, in addition to those we are already feeling now. To stay competitive, you will need to consider every new change.

The 6Ds of exponential growth

Peter Diamandis – engineer, physician, entrepreneur and co-founder of Singularity University – created the Abundance Theory and published a book with the same title.

For him, in spite of what we see and hear out there, we are living in the best time ever.

“The greatest tool we have to face our great challenges is the human mind. The information and communication revolution, now in progress, is spreading rapidly across the planet.

Over the next eight years, 3 billion new individuals will be connected to the Internet, joining the global conversation and contributing to planetary economy. Their ideas – which we could never access before – will result in new discoveries, products and inventions that will benefit all of us”.

Know the exponential growth model of 6Ds, developed by Peter Diamandis, to help companies and people achieve evolution – including in the B2B market.

1. Digitalization

Embedded technologies are part of everyday business. In the Procurement area, procurement, sourcing and supplier management processes can be automated.

This ensures spending less time on operational processes, and more time on strategic issues. In addition, what used to be done in months, can now be done in just a few days with digitalization.

2. Deception

Deception is the period in which exponential growth is disguised as linear growth. At this stage, the process is slow and the results are little encouraging. Changes aren’t always welcome, and in the beginning, it’s normal to find resistance to new technologies.

But the important thing is to show resiliency and certainty that innovation will soon be disruptive, opening up a number of new paths.

3. Disruption

According to Peter Diamandis, “disruptive technology is any innovation that creates a market and unsettles an existing one. Unfortunately, since disruption always succeeds deception, the original technological threat often seems ridiculously insignificant”.

In the Procurement area, most companies are already adopting technologies that enable to keep pace with exponential growth, and change the way of doing business in the future.

4. Demonetization

Demonetization consists of turning a product / service into something very cheap or even free.

Some examples of demonetization are Uber, Airbnb and Skype – which are depleting the value of large companies from the transport, hospitality and telephone sectors, respectively.

In Procurement, there are already partners to assist in the demonetization process, and effectively show that one dollar saved is one dollar more of profit.

5. Dematerialization

Dematerialization is the stage where we can see which tools are now worthless and can be replaced.

A good example is the photograph film, which lost momentum until it disappeared from the market completely.

With exponential growth, access to new platforms becomes more and more possible.

6. Democratization

Everyone must have access and be present, whether in the physical or digital environment.

“Democratization is the end of our exponential chain reaction, the logical outcome of demonetization and dematerialization. This is what happens when physical objects are converted into bits and inserted in a digital platform, at volumes so high that their price approaches zero”.

In the supply scenario, to reach a customer or supplier, you must have access to companies through different platforms.

Regardless of your operation area, understanding that changes are here to stay is essential to be ready for the future.

In this journey, knowledge is the best ally to have security and walk in pace with innovations.